


The Telvanni Guide to Conjuration

by Zalphon



Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 04:12:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16468490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zalphon/pseuds/Zalphon
Summary: A guide to Conjuration written by a Telvanni Spellwright.





	The Telvanni Guide to Conjuration

**The Telvanni Guide to Conjuration**

_By Sakiran Maesa, Spellwright of House Telvanni_

Allow me to clarify something regarding my house.  There is a great deal of misunderstanding regarding what exactly it is we value.  Many speculate that we are a collective of xenophobic isolationists who wish only to be left alone and that is not entirely incorrect (especially in the case of certain members of the council such as Master Neloth) but understand that we seek only to ward ourselves from the stupidity that blights the rest of Morrowind.  We are simply economic with our allotment of time in this life and that means not squandering it on those not worthy of our attention (which includes the vast majority of people, both native to Morrowind and foreign to it), but there are those who prove themselves worthy of pulling us away from our research.  They are given our attention in full and often, our respect, even if we deem them to be a hated rival.

 

The Telvanni way is not one of arrogant aloofness; it is one of economic expenditure of mental energy.  Those who misinterpret it are often those who are not economically worthwhile in regards to our mental energy, hence why they deem us stuck-up and arrogant.  It is important to understand that when we do expend mental energy upon something, it is given our full attention lest we find ourselves wasting our time or endangering ourselves (or worse, our work).

 

Today I was pulled forth from my research by the screams of one of my apprentices.  He was one of my more promising students and I figured he would eventually join the House in full and not as a mere hireling of our organization, but he is now dead and will never be Telvanni.  I wish only that I could hide my disappointment at what was the source of the screams.

 

I sent the guards to check on him and they alerted me that my apprentice had bound a scamp and lost control of it.  I will confess that I was greatly annoyed by this, but I did banish the daedroth before returning to my study and continuing in my research.  The fact that he had summoned a scamp was not what frustrated me; it was that he had lost control.  I believed that I had instilled into him a healthy sense of respect for the forces of Oblivion, but there he lay with his ribs pulled open to form grotesque wings and his throat ripped out.  It annoyed me that he had been so stupid, but it annoyed me more that I didn’t anticipate it from him.

 

I pen these words as a way of explaining to each of you what the School of Conjuration consists of and the proper way of utilizing its effects, because it becomes increasingly evident that there is a gross misunderstanding even amongst the ranks of hopefuls who aspire to my station.  With that said, I will begin by explaining the fundamentals of the School and the differences between Conjuring, Binding, and Summoning.

 

Conjuration as a school requires an understanding of metaphysics, specifically the Aurbic Wheel.  Without first having an understanding of the theoretical aspects of conjuration, anything beyond mere summoning is impossible.  For that reason I encourage you to familiarize yourself with the Aurbic Wheel before continuing onward with this text.

 

The act of Conjuring requires first constructing a gateway between Nirn and Oblivion.  I feel this should go without saying, but please, do not create some physical archway or anything of the sort.  The gateway being discussed is purely a way of describing the metaphysical processes of Conjuring and should not be taken as a literal description, but as conceptualizing the processes behind this act.  Following the construction of the gateway (which in and of itself is a feat), the Conjuror needs to be able to differentiate the different types of Daedra through a surface-level sensing of their souls alone.  This can make it difficult for the unlearned Conjuror to extract something that they have the ability to bind, but one should not mistake even the Scamp for being helpless.  Anything pulled forth from the Planes of Oblivion should be shown the same respect you would give to any Telvanni, because not affording it this respect can be equally fatal as my apprentice learned.

 

Once pulled forth from Oblivion, the Daedroth (which is the singular term for a Daedra, which creates linguistic confusion when compared to the Daedroths: the Crocodile-headed Man Daedra) will likely be disoriented from the planar shift.  It is imperative that the binding process starts during this period or you will find yourself confronted by a creature which has every ability to end your life with minimal effort. 

 

The binding process should always begin with the use of spells that paralyze Daedra.  The only exception to this is in the most extreme circumstances such as when there is simply no time to paralyze the Daedroth (and it is animalistic in nature and thus will focus on whatever is closest).  This leaves the creature unable to defend itself during the event that follows which is the use of spells that strip the Daedroth of its Free Will.  It maintains control of its mental faculties, but is ultimately bound to follow your commands. 

 

It should be noted that there are risks even when using Bound Daedra.  When one of my rivals made an attempt on my life, I scouted her tower and noticed the platoon of Bound Dremora which guarded it.  Having learned of this, I systematically dispelled the Binding on each one of them who held off the others so that I could dispel their bindings until the entire platoon was unbound.  That rival has since fallen and her tower is considered to be a Dremora colony off the coast of Vvardenfell.  I do believe they still maintain control of the tower and they even sent me a gift—a jar of jelly made from her pet scrib.  I thoroughly enjoyed my breakfast the week after I received that.

 

Now we come upon the bastardized form of conjuration known as summoning.  Let it be noted that anyone who aspires to be Telvanni and practices this magic will never go far, because it is not true conjuration.  Summoning is the act of creating a temporary clone of an existing template out of raw magicka.  It was originally concocted by a group of Imperial Mages’ Guild members who could not master the arts of Conjuring and Binding, so they invented a new form of conjuration called Summoning.  To compare it to true Conjuration is to say that the musical works of a bone-nosed Orsimer drummer are comparable to those coming from the opera houses of the Summerset Isles.

 

If anything, summoning is a practice for the lazy and the stupid and that is why it has grown in such popularity by the ‘adventurers’ of the world who think that just because they can ‘summon a Dremora’, they are the same as someone who can conjure and bind a Dremora.  These two are not alike in any way; the abomination that you ‘summoned’ is not a Dremora, it is a magicka-clone of a Dremora.  But advocates of summoning will surely tell you otherwise, because “it’s all the same.”  These advocates are practitioners of bad faith, because they know in their heart that it is not true conjuration and the only reason they are in favor of it is because of their own ineptitude and laziness in developing their metaphysical understanding and mastery over the construction of gateways and extraction of Daedra.  I encourage you to think very carefully before you join the ranks of the Summoners’ Movement and ask yourself if you are truly a student of the arcane arts or just a slinger of discount incantations with no grasp of why they work, just that they work.

 

In returning to what I set off to do and in order to not continue my tangent regarding the intellectual laziness purported as real research by the Summoners’ Movement, I encourage you to develop a firm grasp of the Telvanni customs of respect.  Study these customs and understand why we extend respect to those whom it is extended to and apply these same principles to those you conjure.  When you have come to a solid understanding of this and you have developed a certain degree of proficiency when it comes to creating gateways, then and only then will you be ready to actually extract a daedroth from Oblivion and I encourage you to do it under the watchful eye of one who can banish it should you pull out something greater than you can handle (such as one late conjurer in this house whose first conjuration was a Daedroth (the crocodile-headed men)). 


End file.
